More than 300 schoolchildren and 12 teachers were abducted by gunmen during an attack on a Catholic school in Nigeria, updating the number of children kidnapped from 215.

The attack occurred at St Mary's School in the north-central state of Niger, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) says.

The tally was changed "after a verification exercise and a final census was carried out", according to a statement issued by the Most Rev Bulus Dauwa Yohanna, chairman of the Niger chapter of CAN, who visited the school on Friday.

The school kidnapping in the state's remote Papiri community happened four days after 25 schoolchildren were seized in similar circumstances in the neighbouring state of Kebbi's Maga town, which is 170 kilometres away.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the a

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